Biography
In 1982, he moved to Kazakhstan with his parents and learnt to play chess a year later. A winner of the Kazakhstani Youth Championship in 1985, he went on to represent Kazakhstan at the 1992 Chess Olympiad in Manila and was twice the national champion.
International Master and Grandmaster titles were awarded to him in 1993 and 1996 respectively. Now living in Cannes, Tkachiev has taken French citizenship and won the 2006 French Chess Championship, held at Besançon, August 14–26. His victory included a rapid play-off win against Laurent Fressinet.
In 2007, he won the European Individual Chess Championship, held in Dresden, following a play-off with GMs Emil Sutovsky, Dmitry Jakovenko and Ivan Cheparinov.
He also reached the semi-finals of the Russian Chess Championship in 2005 and won the Moscow Blitz Superfinal in 2004, ahead of Alexander Morozevich. Other victories include Oakham 1993, Cannes 1996 (and 1999), Isle of Man 1996 and Makarska 1997.
In matchplay, he has defeated Alberto David 6-2 (+4=4) in 1999 and beat Dutch grandmaster John van der Wiel by 7-3 (+5=4-1). In 2000, his (Cannes) match against Jeroen Piket ended in a 4-4 draw (+2=4-2).
Tkachiev admits leading a racy—if not hedonistic—lifestyle and to finding it difficult to cope with lengthy tournaments at long time controls. His passion is therefore for blitz chess and this appears also to be his real strength.
In September 2009, Tkachiev caused controversy after falling asleep during a match at an international tournament in Calcutta, India. He was reportedly intoxicated and, after passing out repeatedly during the first hour of play, was forced to forfeit the game after eleven moves on technical grounds.
Read more about this topic: Vladislav Tkachiev
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